


That old wintertime magic

by unnieunnie



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: AU - magic shop, God's perfect angel of exercise Minseok, Hapless Baekhyun, M/M, Multi, Nonstop twinkle shine Jongdae, Solstice Magic, Strong opinions about essential oils, Unfair slagging of mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:29:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21810853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unnieunnie/pseuds/unnieunnie
Summary: After running his grandma's small-town magic shop for years, Baekhyun had gotten used to the idea that he was doomed to life as the neighborhood's single mascot, surrounded by kids buying Tarot cards and grannies buying weird tea.Which made it pretty surprising when the shop acquired a cute new customer AND his gym sprouted a sex god.Maybe it was time to break out one of the love charms.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin
Comments: 22
Kudos: 292
Collections: Round 3: Autumn and Winter - On the Snow





	That old wintertime magic

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt flake: 159
> 
> Thanks so much for this fun prompt! I hope I did it justice
> 
> xxxxxx

As per usual for November, Baekhyun arrived at Potions & Notions to a pile of cardboard boxes. He sighed heavily and took a fortifying sip of his caramel apple cider. Oh boy. Paper cuts and dust galore.

He had loved his grandma. So much. She took him in when his parents went to a fancy office dinner party and never came home, thanks to a drunk driver. He’d spent his miserable teenage years in Potions & Notions, sniffling in the back room, complaining his way through inventory every year, learning the business via osmosis.

He knew Grammy had left it to him in her will. He hadn’t known she was going to up and die in her bed with a smile on her face a month after his university graduation. Bereft of the only support he knew, he’d gone through the motions of running the shop during the first few years of his grief, and now, 5 years later, it was just … normal.

Also, he felt like part of the neighborhood. Mrs. Kang brought him dinner at least once a week, even if she wasn’t low on any of her weird teas. Grandpa Hong had an infinite number of granddaughters, and had spent years showing Baekhyun pictures of them, until Baekhyun’s subtle hints finally got through his still-full head of white hair. Grandpa Hong had many fewer grandsons, and fewer compliments about them, but he still tried.

He always had a handful of invitations to people’s houses for holidays. Knew whom to call when there was a plumbing, electrical, or insectoid emergency. Couldn’t get through a trip to the grocery store without a half-dozen conversations. This was home.

Even if he ran a magic store, when magic was _obviously_ bullshit.

He unpacked the boxes all morning. Finding room for more candles when he already had hundreds of them was a quandary. Little bottles of essential oils were easier. Pine was nice, but frankincense smelled heavy and made him sneeze.

He didn’t even know what mistletoe was, much less why some of it was gold-colored and brittle and some of it came sealed in plastic bags, green with creepy-looking white berries. Something about kissing, maybe?

All of it meant profit, anyhow. Most of the time, he was lucky to have 5 people come in to interrupt his dozing behind the counter. But around the solstices and the equinoxes – and whatever “cross-quarter days” were, though he had them marked on his calendar ( _Magical Puppies_ ) – half the time he had to take the bells off the door so they didn’t give him a massive headache.

Baekhyun was still kneeling over a box, those little puffed-air packing doodads piled around his ankles, when the bells rang out and the twinkiest twink ever to twinkle bounced through his door.

What the hell.

Who even had a mouth like that, curled up at each end? His hair was _terrible_ , Baekhyun positively itched to get at him with some mousse and the intention to show off those killer cheekbones instead of making him look like some kind of incredibly cute fungus growing by a tree root.

“Hey,” the guy said. “Oh. Hi!”

Wow, his smile was about 4 million watts. Baekhyun wanted to plug him into the electrical grid, this guy could power the whole town with a grin like that.

Hell. Baekhyun wanted to plug this dude straight into his own ass.

“Can I help you?” Baekhyun said, pairing his flirtiest tone with his flirtiest smile: the deadly combination that had gotten him screwed until he forgot his own name up _and_ down the peninsula.

The smile went to 5 million watts.

“Hi,” the guy said again, this time significantly lower in pitch.

Then he looked briefly confused and cleared his throat.

“Uh. Do you work here?”

“I own the place,” Baekhyun said, still going for Heavy Flirtation Mode.

“Thank god,” the guy said, sagging. “Or, uh. Am I supposed to say ‘thank the gods’? ‘Thank the powers’? I’m new at this, sorry if that sounded offensive.”

“I don’t really care what you say as long as your card works,” Baekhyun laughed.

Mr. Cutie turned red and rubbed his earlobe between two fingers.

“I need to buy a bowl,” he said. “And a white candle, and an ath- … an atha- … a knife,” he said.

Baekhyun stood up and brushed lint off his knees.

“Bowls, candles, and knives I got,” he said. “And don’t worry, literally everybody pronounces that word differently, I have no idea which way is correct.”

Twinkle toes followed Baekhyun around the store, obediently taking the plain white pillar candle and taking a month and a half to choose a bowl (a process that included putting fingerprints on every halfway decent-looking bowl on the shelves).

“Do I need to buy fancy salt?”

Baekhyun grinned.

“Well, if you want impressive-looking salt that’s pink and costs about ten times what you have in your salt shaker, I’d be happy to sell you some. But salt’s salt, really.”

The guy was almost as cute when he looked serious as he was when he smiled. His eyebrows tipped up at the center, and he was making duck lips. Finally the guy picked one of Baekhyun’s favorite bowls: blue raku-fired pottery, small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand. Even if it was a tiny, cute hand with stubby fingers.

“Knives are in the case,” Baekhyun said.

“Oh no, I definitely need one that’s not sharp,” the guy said after Baekhyun's speech. “I don’t want to accidentally stab myself and die from embarrassment.”

He ended up choosing – again – one of Baekhyun’s favorites, a blade that folded in on itself into a leaf shape.

“I really love that one,” he murmured without meaning to.

“It looks really pretty next to the bowl, right?”

Baekhyun looked up into that smile again. He cursed his fully-stocked store that had everything on the guy’s list, when it would be so much nicer if he needed to come back for something.

While Baekhyun ran his card, the guy plucked one of the shop’s business cards from the little broom-shaped holder by the cash register.

“Thanks for your help … Baekhyun?”

“You’re welcome, valued customer,” Baekhyun said, handing over the bag.

“Jongdae,” cute guy said, flashing that 400-watt smile again.

“Well, Jongdae, please feel free to come back anytime I can fulfill your magical needs.”

Maybe that was a _bit_ heavy-handed, given how Jongdae laughed on his way out.

But anyhow, it was nice to know he finally had a customer who was neither a black-clad teenager nor a middle-aged lady. Not that he didn’t love black-clad teenagers and middle-aged ladies. The former had more than once called him “cool” for not narcing on them when they skipped school, which was important for maintaining his sense of self as 30 loomed ever closer. And the latter kept the shop afloat, on top of occasionally bringing him free food.

A cute dude his own age, though: that meant not only a diversified revenue stream but also the hope of a date.

A couple of days later, Baekhyun wondered whether those new good-luck charms he had gotten in a couple months earlier actually worked, because he went to the gym to find, along with the grannies having aqua aerobics in the pool and the mom brigade doing yoga, a sex god among the free weights.

This was pretty terrible, because Baekhyun was used to his little neighborhood gym being full of people who had known him since his entire face was one pimple, so his normal gym wear tended to be either whatever clothing was both raggedy and in need of a wash already or his actual pajamas. At the moment, he had the sinking fear that the t-shirt he was wearing, which could’ve fit 3 of him, had a pretty big hole right at nipple level. He looked down.

Yup.

Great.

And then he couldn’t even turn around and walk out, because the sex god turned, caught his eye, and nodded. According to the dude code, Baekhyun was now stuck. He was required by virtue of the testosterone in his veins to nod back and work through his routine.

 _And_ to somehow do so without goggling at how much that little dude could bench press, what the hell. He had a pretty, heart-shaped face and the kind of lips that sang out “why yes, we are super soft and delicious, hello, please kiss us” but then was evidently some kind of miniature power lifter from the neck down. Baekhyun was in pretty decent shape, but watching this guy make even grunting on the cable machine look attractive made Baekhyun poke himself in the thigh and swear to eat fewer delicious breakfast pastries.

Even though the lure of delicious breakfast pastries was about the only thing that could inspire him to go to the gym regularly.

“Are you okay?”

Baekhyun jumped and looked up to see the sex god staring at him and elegantly mopping the very attractive sweat off his not-even-red face, how was he even real?

“Uh, yeah, just zoning out,” he said.

The sex god smiled, a little crookedly and showing his gums.

Baekhyun hoped his whimper wasn’t out loud.

“I hear you,” the sex god said. “Morning workouts can be really rough.”

Baekhyun nodded and scrounged his memory for how to do lat pull-downs.

The next few weeks turned out to be expensive: first, Jongdae showed up at the shop again, so Baekhyun had to wear stuff less dumb-looking than holey jeans and oversized hoodies to the store, which meant he had to go shopping for, like, decent-looking hoodies and intact jeans tight enough to show off his ass-ets. And then the sex god kept showing up at the gym, so Baekhyun had to go shopping again for workout gear that didn’t look like it came off the bedroom floor or hide the actual muscles nobody knew he actually had.

The shopping really cut into his Xbox time. But it was worth it, the way Jongdae kept smiling at him and that one time the sex god looked Baekhyun up and down and bit his lip.

The only problem was, they both seemed kind of impervious to flirting. It was weird. Baekhyun knew himself to be an accomplished flirt, and he wasn’t subtle at all, but 2 weeks went by, and he still had neither Jongdae’s phone number nor the sex god’s name.

Jongdae, at least, was having problems, which meant he was in the shop every other day.

“I need oil of cinnamon and frankincense,” he said one afternoon, consulting the ever-present list in his tiny little paw.

“Meditating?”

Jongdae gave a gloomy nod.

“My, um. Friend says I need to work on my focus.”

Baekhyun, as a responsible purveyor of goods who definitely did not want this cute source of additional income to dry up, waited until after Jongdae had left to grumble about the presence of an “um friend,” which he had to figure was why there was no new cute contact in his phone.

The next day brought two deviations:

First, the sex god looked totally off his game, dragging around with dark circles under his eyes. He looked so miserable that he could almost pass for a regular human instead of an otherworldly being, and it made Baekhyun brave.

“Are you all right?”

Sex god rubbed his hand over his face.

“There isn’t enough coffee in the world today,” he said. “Bad night’s sleep.”

“That sucks.”

Sex god peered at him.

“Thanks,” he said, and stuck out his hand to shake.

“I’m Minseok.”

Baekhyun touched the hand of the most beautiful person he had ever seen and somehow managed to survive the experience.

“Baekhyun.”

There was more frowning. Jeez, this guy looked amazing even when he scowled.

“Why do I know that name? Have we met?”

“Nope, just been companionably working out at the gym,” Baekhyun said. “Though it’s nice to finally know your name.”

“Likewise,” Minseok said.

Minseok left not long after, citing his exhaustion and trying so hard not to make his early departure weird that he made it a little weird. It was unbearably cute.

Then, that afternoon, Jongdae showed up again.

Usually several days passed between his visits, but he slumped into the shop mid-afternoon, at an energy level so much lower than usual that Baekhyun had no idea he was there until he sneezed.

The poor guy’s nose was as red as a stoplight. Baekhyun made a note to get out his hand sanitizer and take some extra vitamin C, seemed like a germ was going around.

“That’s quite a cold,” Baekhyun said.

Jongdae sneezed again.

“Allergies,” he said, sounding hoarse. “I guess I’m allergic to frankincense.”

“Oh no,” Baekhyun said.

Or, more accurately, “laughed,” which earned him a bleary scowl. They took a tour of the rack of oils: myrrh also made Jongdae sneeze, as did “Focus Blend,” patchouli, lavender, and “Third Eye.” Sandalwood didn’t make him sneeze, but it did make him grimace and turn his head away from the bottle.

“Isn’t there anything to help with focus that doesn’t smell like a hippie or my grandma’s attic?”

Jongdae showed excellent taste in essential oils, in Baekhyun’s opinion. Myrrh _did_ smell like a grandma’s attic, and not just his own grandma’s attic, which happened to have actual chunks of myrrh in it, because she had thought it kept mice away.

“Here, hang out with this peppermint oil for a minute, let me dig something out.”

Jongdae looked with reasonable skepticism at the box Baekhyun handed him.

“Are you giving me something kinky.”

“Depends on whether you’re sexually aroused by pouring salt water through the inside of your face.”

That made Jondgae actually back up a couple of steps. Baekhyun laughed again. How did his life get so full of cute guys, and why wasn’t he kissing any of them yet?

“It’s terrible, but I swear it really does help when your nose is stuffed up. You can have it on the house, since it’s my fault you’re stuffed up in the first place.”

But Jongdae insisted on paying for the neti pot, even if he did continue staring at the box like he thought it might bite him. Baekhyun thanked whatever was around for thanking, because the extra time gave him a moment of brilliance.

“You’re trying to meditate, right? There’s a meditation group that meets here once a week. It’s uh, what day is it? Tonight, actually. And they don’t use anything smelly at all. They sit around one of the salt lamps and, like, think about tree roots coming out of their butts or something, it’s really popular.”

Jongdae stared at him and blinked a lot.

“You don’t seem very – into all this stuff,” he said, gesturing toward the shelves.

Baekhyun shrugged.

“I mean, I’m into my bills getting paid. And my grandma owned the place before me, so it’s basically home. But I’m not really spiritual or whatever. It’s just a living.”

Jongdae gazed at him for a moment, then sighed.

“Give me the information, I guess,” he said.

Baekhyun handed him the flyer.

“They have tea and cookies after they meditate,” he said.

The meditation group met after the shop closed, but they were used to him poking around in the background, even though Mrs. Im, who ran the group, had a set of keys and even knew the cash register code in case anyone wanted to buy something after their meeting and he wasn’t around. But of course the chance to stare at Jongdae was too great a temptation, and Baekhyun needed to do a bunch of stupid math about the receipts and expenses anyway, so he sat on his stool and listened to Mrs. Im drone on about white butterflies lifting out of everyone’s heads and tried not to fall asleep and drool on his bank book.

He stared at Jongdae’s profile, watched how he wiggled a lot at first, before he fell into the lull of Mrs. Im’s voice, sitting straight and still, his face serious and more adorable than ever. Afterward, all the meditators crowded around their new meat, pressing cookies into his hands, until Jongdae looked over at Baekhyun with desperation on his face.

Maybe Jongdae had a thing for savior types. Just in case, Baekhyun strolled over. The cookies turned out to be oatmeal-chocolate chip, so he was happy he’d bothered. He put his knowledge to use of all the various households and hobbies of the meditation group, letting them focus on him so that Jongdae had a second to eat a cookie and wash it down with a cup of tepid herbal tea. He even lingered in the background while the other members of the group peeled off in twos and threes to leave.

“How was it?” Baekhyun asked when everyone had gone.

“It was cool,” Jongdae said. “I actually feel really relaxed.”

“Awesome.”

They stared at each other like a couple of awkward dorks for a couple of awkward minutes. If it had been a club, Baekhyun would’ve tried to kiss him. If he hadn’t heard about Jongdae’s “um friend,” he would’ve tried to kiss him. But he didn’t know the extent of either “um” or “friend,” so any kissing was going to have to be up to Jongdae.

And he didn’t.

He stuck his hands in his coat pockets, said “thanks again,” and left.

Baekhyun took one of the little novelty cloth “voodoo dolls,” threw it on the floor, and stomped on it a couple of times. It helped. Sort of.

Anyhow, Jongdae was back 2 days later, banging the door open with a clatter of bells to yell,

“Going for coffee, want one?”

“I’ll take a hot chocolate,” Baekhyun’s taste buds said before his brain could get in gear.

Ten minutes and 2 ladies buying bags of cinnamon-scented pinecones later, Jongdae set a very large paper cup on the counter in front of him.

“I kind of figured you might be the type to want the peppermint hot chocolate and plenty of whipped cream.”

“You are correct!” Baekhyun said happily, pulling off the lid to get at the good stuff.

Jongdae’s expression, while Baekhyun smacked his lips, looked a little – sappy.

“You have whipped cream on your nose,” he said softly.

Baekhyun wiped it off with his sleeve.

“Thanks for this,” Baekhyun said when the silence started to bend toward weirdness. “What’s the occasion?”

After several weeks of exposure to it, Baekhyun had come to the conclusion that Jongdae’s grin was one of the superior smiles currently going.

“Would you believe me if I said it was for the amazing experience of pouring salt water from one nostril to the other?”

Baekhyun laughed.

“I would have to wonder about you.”

“It really did help, despite grossing me out. But really, it’s for being so nice to me all the time. I just moved here, so I don’t know a lot of people. I probably sound like a huge dweeb, coming in here all the time with no idea what I’m doing, but you’re always really great about it.”

“And what brings you to our fair town?”

“Work,” Jongdae said. “Or, rather, my roommate’s work. He got a job at the college. And I freelance, so I can work anywhere. I figured I’d come with, I’ve never lived in a small town before.”

So the “um friend” was now “my roommate.” Baekhyun was encouraged.

“How do you like it so far?” he asked, engaging Active Flirt Mode for the first time in a while.

One of Jongdae’s angled eyebrows lifted.

“Scenery’s pretty nice,” he said, looking Baekhyun in the eye, and sipped his drink.

“Oh yeah,” Baekhyun said. “All the trees, mountains in the background.”

“Right.”

Baekhyun prodded him for information while they drank hot drinks at each other. He discovered Jongdae’s profession (graphic design) and the mysterious roommate’s (European culture and history professor).

“He speaks French,” Jongdae said, rolling his eyes. “Have you ever heard French? I don’t even know how a mouth makes some of those sounds. And don’t even get me started about his nine thousand opinions about bread, it’s so weird.”

But all of this was said with so much warmth in Jongdae’s voice that Baekhyun got gloomy all over again that this was the kind of roommate with whom one shared a bedroom and orgasms. Or maybe Jongdae wasn’t even gay! Baekhyun couldn’t even tell anymore. All this living alone in his hometown had ruined him, he’d been really good at dating once upon a time. Or good at getting laid, anyhow. And now look at him.

“Oh hey, I didn’t mean to take up your whole morning,” Jongdae said. “I’m sorry, I rattled on, didn’t I?”

Before Baekhyun could protest, Jongdae pulled another of his lists from his pocket. More candles this time (“what is a bayberry, and why do we care?”), some of the cinnamon pinecones, and mistletoe.

“Fresh or dried?”

“I have no idea.”

Jongdae peered at them both, declared the fresh “creepy-looking,” and bought the dried.

“Thanks for the hot chocolate,” Baekhyun said while he handed over Jongdae’s bag.

He didn’t mean to sound so wistful.

“It won’t be the last one,” Jongdae said.

The next morning, Baekhyun found himself the target of a smile from Minseok so bright that he briefly lost all feeling in his body. The really tragic part of that was that it caused him to follow Minseok around for the whole workout, therefore doing about twice as much as he usually did and ensuring that he’d be lucky to be able to get out of bed the next morning.

To try to forestall the coming pain, Baekhyun lingered in the shower for long enough that he was surprised to find Minseok still waiting for him outside the locker room.

“I have to run an errand in town,” Minseok said. “I noticed you always go this way, so I thought I’d walk with you.”

Well. That certainly lessened his gloom about Jongdae’s possibly-romantic roommate.

They ambled along the sidewalk, talking about nothing much. Minseok kept glancing at his phone and the numbers on the shops they passed.

“Do you not know where you’re going?” Baekhyun asked.

“No, but it ought to be just near here.”

They were in front of Potions & Notions. Baekhyun dug his keys out of his pocket. Minseok looked at his phone, then up at the sign and the number over the door.

“Wait,” he said. “You’re the cute magic shop guy?”

“What?”

“I knew I’d heard your name somewhere. Usually Jongdae just calls you his friend at the magic shop, but I should’ve put it together.”

“He calls me what? Wait, Jongdae? How do you? You’re the French professor?”

Minseok grinned.

“Nah, my French isn’t that good. I teach European history, Jongdae just thinks French sounds dumb.”

Baekhyun wished for a nice cinderblock wall to smack his head into. Of course Minseok was Jongdae’s “um friend/roommate.” Of course two of the most attractive people alive would show up in his little town and be probably together.

“I should’ve put it together too,” Baekhyun said.

“Well now that we all know we know each other, we should have dinner or something.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Minseok gave him a musing look, then followed him into the shop.

“Anyway,” he said, “Will you let me exchange this mistletoe? Jongdae got the dried, but I wanted the fresh.”

Baekhyun pulled out a couple of packages and let Minseok pick the one he wanted.

“This is so much prettier, though,” Baekhyun said, shaking the packet of dried mistletoe Minseok had given him.

“Let me guess, creepy berries,” Minseok said.

Baekhyun nodded, and Minseok snorted.

“You and Jongdae are so alike, it’s hilarious. It’s supposed to be a symbol of life even in the dead time of winter, I’m surprised you don’t know that.”

Baekhyun must’ve made a face, because Minseok laughed and smacked his arm.

“I’m going to hold you to that dinner, Baekhyun,” he said on his way out.

Oh boy, third-wheeling. Sounded great.

The next morning brought Jongdae again, and a hot chocolate placed on the counter with a sharp sound.

“You are hot gym dude,” Jongdae accused.

Baekhyun had a moment of overwhelming “huh?”

“I’m what?”

“I thought we had an understanding,” Jongdae said. “I thought we were on team cookie and sugary drinks together! And now I find out you’re into _fitness_ , you traitor.”

Baekhyun laughed.

“I only work out so I can eat more cookies, I promise!”

Jongdae glared at him.

“Leaving me all alone in squish town, I’m so disappointed in you.”

Baekhyun’s close observations of the past month or so, not to mention his having moved all the most basic wicca supplies to higher shelves in the hope that Jongdae’s shirt would ride up when he reached for stuff, made that statement ridiculous.

“Oh please, where do you have squish?”

“I have plenty of squish,” Jongdae said in a lofty tone. “You just don’t know anything about it.”

Baekhyun made a note to pull out one of the hex kits and put a curse on himself. Because if he had _once_ asked about their dumb “roommate” situation, he would know what was going on right now, and possibly be able to say one of the comebacks currently jumping around in his mind, like “I’d love to find out,” or “baby, I’ve been looking, and I only like what I see,” or “bet I could make at least one of your soft parts hard.”

Ugh. Why was life so difficult?

“Sorry to disappoint you,” he said.

Jongdae sighed.

“And you probably like Min better,” he said, pushing his lips out like a duck and talking like a pouty baby.

Baekhyun reminded himself not to die on the spot.

“He’s all thoughtful and smart and stuff, and he has that face.”

That face, and those arms, and in particular those amazing fucking thighs.

“I know you better, though,” Baekhyun laughed. “He and I haven’t really had any conversations more extensive than ‘you done on that machine’ and ‘need a spotter,’ other than yesterday.”

“Oh, it’ll happen,” Jongdae grumbled. “Everybody gets a crush on Minseok eventually.”

He leaned over the counter.

“Everybody.”

That face so close to his, lips pursed almost as if for a kiss, and the pure ridiculousness of the conversation let Baekhyun go for broke.

“What if I get a crush on you instead?”

Jongdae’s cheeks went pink and his eyes wide. He stood up and flapped his mouth like a goldfish a couple of times before he raised his cup to his mouth.

“Acceptable,” he said.

Baekhyun grinned.

“Now I’m leaving before it gets weird,” Jongdae said, and raised his middle finger in the air while he walked out to the accompaniment of Baekhyun’s laughter.

Just to keep up the daily surprises, the next day Minseok handed him a small slip of paper. Baekhyun was briefly caught up in wondering whether that piece of paper could possibly have come from, because despite the cold wind blowing outside, Minseok was wearing a clingy tank top and the kind of tiny shorts Baekhyun had worn a couple of times to the sort of party where you had to run around trying to find your clothes the next morning before you could go home.

“What’s this?”

“Come to our solstice ritual,” Minseok said.

“Oh,” Baekhyun said. “Didn’t Jongdae tell you? I just run the shop, I’m not really – into all that stuff, I wouldn’t want to be disrespectful.”

Minseok fiddled with the neck of his tank, which sat right around collarbone level. Baekhyun took a long sip out of his water bottle.

“Come anyway,” Minseok said. “I know you won’t be a jerk about it and we’ll have dinner after. Do you have any food allergies?”

“No.”

Minseok made this crooked little smile with half-lidded eyes that could’ve burned a whole city to the ground. Baekhyun drank some more water.

“Great. Seven p.m. on the twenty-first. Bring a bottle of wine. Red.”

“Okay.”

And then Baekhyun watched Minseok do leg day in those tiny shorts. He thought seriously about going to the health clinic afterward for a cardiac workup, but decided a nice long session of “me time” in the shower at home would be more directly helpful.

The next couple of days before the solstice were busy at the shop, which provided a little distraction from the fact that he saw neither Jongdae nor Minseok. This gave him ample opportunity to think up dozens of scenarios in which he could make a giant fool of himself and/or seriously offend Jongdae and/or Minseok.

He totally would’ve chickened out and called to bow out of dinner, except for the fact that he didn’t know either of their phone numbers. So he was stuck.

He was also stuck going to his usual winter solstice activity: Mrs. Kang’s cookie-decorating party. It was bad enough having to make excuses to leave early; he knew everybody would never let him hear the end of it if he didn’t at least show his face. Besides which, he really loved that party, which was attended by half the people who shopped at Potions & Notions and their kids, plus, you know, cookies.

He went early to help set up and put up with inevitability of Mrs. Kang yelling to everyone that he had a date the second they walked through the door.

“It’s not a date,” he said every time, and was ignored every time.

Most of the meditation group was there, so when he said he was having dinner with Jongdae, there was a chorus of “ooo”s.

“He’s so cute!” Mrs. Im said. “Snatch that one right up, honey.”

“ _And_ his roommate, I think they’re dating,” Baekhyun said.

This was followed by an outbreak of narrowed eyes. Baekhyun applied himself to smearing green icing on a tree-shaped cookie.

“And who’s this roommate?” Grandpa Hong asked.

“Professor at the college. He teaches European history.”

Mrs. Kang froze with a spoonful of red icing held in midair. Baekhyun remembered that she worked at the college.

“Not Kim Minseok?” she said.

“Yeah.”

Mrs. Kang put the spoon down and placed her hand over her heart.

“Oh my,” she said. “Oh dear, he’s the most handsome person I’ve ever seen.”

“Excuse me,” Mr. Kang said.

“Honey. I love you very much, but please adhere to reality,” Mrs. Kang said.

So when Baekhyun had to leave at 6:40, he was required to add a wrapped plate of cookies to the bottles (2) of wine in his bicycle basket.

As he did all winter long, Baekhyun had a stream of unpleasant commentary directed toward the town’s lack of public transportation and his lack of a car while he turned himself into an icicle on the trip to their house. Usually he just told himself that the rage kept him warm. It really didn’t, and neither did his dress coat, which wasn’t half as warm as the padded down coat he usually wore for winter bicycle trips. But even if it wasn’t a date (“it’s not a date,” he growled under his breath), he didn’t want to show up looking like a dork.

He showed up looking like a dork anyway, with a wine bottle in each coat pocket and a plate of cookies jumping around in his hands while he shivered.

When he opened the door, his eyes thawed out in a flash at the sight of Minseok in professorial clothes, which may have been less tight than his gym gear but were no less flattering to his straight shoulders and long legs. Minseok’s smile, meanwhile, immediately vanished into concern.

“Look at you, get inside, you look frozen! Did you walk?”

By the end of that speech, Baekhyun had been divested of both cookies and wine and was reluctantly unbuttoning his coat.

“Biked,” he chattered.

“Baekhyun. If I’d known I’d have offered to come pick you up,” Minseok said. “Come in and sit by the fire.”

Baekhyun was ready to sit _in_ the fire. He made a beeline for it, dropping to the rug in front of the hearth and holding out his hands to the crackling flames.

“You can use a chair,” Minseok said with a smile.

Baekhyun shook his head.

“Min, did I hear somebody at the Baekhyun??” Jongdae yelled.

“Oh dear, did I forget to mention,” Minseok drawled.

And winked at Baekhyun as he walked away with arms full of cookies and wine. That was certainly a thing to think about once his brain thawed out.

“Baekhyun, what are you doing here? And why do you look like an ice cream sandwich?”

Baekhyun looked down. Oh god, he really had worn brown pants and a white sweater.

“Not your clothes, stupid, your face.”

Jongdae put warm hands on his cheeks, and Baekhyun had to shut his eyes for a second, not only at the blissful warmth but also because Jongdae was awfully close and he’d pushed his hair back off his forehead and was wearing his red sweater extremely well, and with his brain frozen, Baekhyun knew his odds of saying or doing something stupid were higher than ever.

“Minseok invited me?” he said. “And I bicycled over, I’ll thaw out in a minute.”

Alas, the hands drew away from his face. Baekhyun opened his eyes. Jongdae was sitting back on his heels with a musing expression on his face.

“Is it okay? I can leave if you don’t – “

“Don’t be dumb, Baekhyun,” Jongdae said gently. “I’m just surprised, is all.”

He leaned in like he was going to tell a secret.

“I never know what the hell Min’s up to, you’d think I’d be used to it by now.”

“Still waters run deep,” Minseok said behind them, laughter in his voice.

“Nobody who runs as much as you do can be described as ‘still waters’,” Jongdae said, squinting up.

“You laugh now, but I’ll be the one laughing after the apocalypse, when you become zombie chow,” Minseok said.

Over Jongdae’s rude noise, he asked,

“Warming up, Baek? Can I get you anything?”

“No, I’m great, I’m just going to turn and warm up my other side like – “

No, not like that in any way, shape, or form.

“Like a roast on a spit?” Minseok asked.

And smirked over the identical sounds of Jongdae and Baekhyun choking at once.

On one hand, Baekhyun was grateful that Minseok had never brought out this wicked sense of humor at the gym, because Baekhyun would definitely have fallen head-first into the weight rack and died. On the other hand, it was _delightful_. Confusing, but delightful.

“Wait, you’re not a zombie, are you?” he asked. “You didn’t invite me here to be some kind of evil sacrifice?”

“Oh no, Jongdae faints at the sight of blood,” Minseok said.

“I do not!”

Minseok blinked beatifically.

“Okay, _one_ time, I had low blood sugar, what the hell, Min.”

By the time Jongdae finished recounting his story about a day-long hiking trip just after an exam, an ugly but minor injury, and a “just for a second, I barely lost consciousness” faint, Baekhyun was done rotating back and forth and had warmed up all his parts, partially from laughing with Minseok about Jongdae’s indignation.

“I suppose you’ve never fainted,” Jongdae groused.

“Dude, I totally have,” Baekhyun said. “I was a party one time and somebody set off a bunch of fireworks all of a sudden, and the guy I was making out with bit me on the dick. You’d better believe I passed right the fuck out.”

It occurred to Baekhyun that there were probably about 4 million more graceful ways to announce one’s sexuality to a couple of new acquaintances.

“Oh my god,” Jongdae, said, sounding hoarse. “I want to faint just hearing that.”

“On that note, ritual?” Minseok said.

Despite thinking it was a lot of pretty nonsense, Baekhyun had seen and participated in a lot of rituals over the years. Minseok’s was among the nicer ones: low on the goofiness and big on the whole connection to the seasons stuff. They sat on the floor in front of the fire, and while Minseok walked around in a circle and did his thing, Baekhyun looked around at all the items he recognized – the cinnamon pinecones in a bowl above the fireplace, a wreath of grapevines, holly, and the mistletoe hanging above it. White pillar candles from the shop in a circle around them, a bayberry candle in the center by the pottery bowl of water and a small brown feather.

He watched the way Jongdae’s eyes followed Minseok and wished anybody once had ever gazed at him with half so much longing.

Although, considering, it was pretty understandable. Minseok moved with so much grace, and spoke with so much calm authority, that Baekhyun figured he probably wore the same kind of sappy facial expression.

He was really looking forward to drinking away one or two of his troubles with some of that wine and freezing the rest of them away on his bike ride home.

“Earth we thank for this new home,” Minseok said. “May we set down roots here and grow into our best selves.”

That was a nice thought, that the two of them might stay. Baekhyun liked the idea that they could all be friends. Maybe they knew someone cute and single that they could hook him up with.

“Air we thank for everything new we have learned in this season, and for the kindness of those from whom we learned it.”

Jongdae turned his spotlight smile in Baekhyun’s direction. It really was a terrific smile, Baekhyun ached a little to see it.

“Water we thank for the wisdom to know what’s in our own hearts.”

Jongdae sighed the happy sigh of the en-crushéd. Baekhyun sighed the doleful sigh of the eternal third wheel.

“Fire we thank for our passions that will warm this long winter night and see us through to the light of dawn.”

Baekhyun rubbed his nose to take away the sting of that. Well, at least he’d have an early evening. He could finish that raid that’d been giving him so much trouble.

There was some nice stuff about light versus darkness and making warmth in the cold. Baekhyun was impressed at how non-dorky Minseok made it all sound. Must be what happened when you taught history for a living.

Anyhow, the ritual ended, and Minseok set all the lit candles up on the mantel, where they continued looking pretty. Baekhyun stood and held out his hand to help Jongdae up. Jongdae looked perplexed. Baekhyun could relate.

But he helped Minseok set the small table out in front of the fire and gather up utensils and glassware to set out. It was kind of a funny meal – Baekhyun’s wine, and lots of side dishes, with bowls of patjuk that couldn’t be any more traditional if they tried, and the frosted cookies for afterward. Baekhyun didn’t even think about it until he put a spoonful of red-bean porridge in his mouth, and the memory of winter solstice dinners with Grammy came rushing back, and for a little bit there, he couldn’t even swallow.

Why in the world did he start talking about it? Maybe because of Jongdae’s worried expression, Minseok’s hand resting firmly on his forearm. Together with the candles, the pinecones, and the porridge, they made a dimly lit space where Baekhyun ran off at the mouth about his grandmother and growing up at the shop.

They were both so _nice_ about it – Jongdae with his questions and Minseok with this wide-eyed, sympathetic look on his face that unfairly made him more handsome than ever.

“Wow, you must’ve been to a hundred rituals through the years, how did I do?” Minseok asked when the conversation had backed off to the lighter side of Baekhyun’s magic-adjacent lifestyle.

“Oh, don’t ask me,” Baekhyun said. “You know I’m not into this stuff.”

“I’d still like to know what you thought,” Minseok said.

“I liked it. I get a little weirded out by all the gods and powers stuff, but the seasonal stuff is nice. It’s kind of cool to think of the year that way.”

“The elements, and the cyclical nature of it all,” Minseok said, nodding. “I find it gives me hope for myself.”

Baekhyun watched Jongdae’s head tilt to one side and realized he was doing the same thing. He sat up straight.

“Because you know, Baekhyun, I’ve been aware for years that Jongdae carried a torch for me.”

For Jongdae’s sake, Baekhyun sincerely wished that the body part thumping against the underside of the table was only his knee. Minseok’s expression looked so mild, as if he was talking about the weather, except for the tiniest crinkle at the outer edges of Minseok’s lovely, almond-shaped eyes.

“And I think I would’ve continued to take that for granted if I hadn’t realized that he was also developing a nice little crush on his friend at the magic shop,” Minseok continued.

Either Jongdae was coming down with a cold or he tried to choke on his own quickly disappearing dignity. At the same time, Baekhyun felt his flirtation antennae perk up in suspicion.

“Which would’ve made me sad, except that I had the tandem realization that I really wanted to stick my dick in the mouth of the cute guy at the gym.”

It was a solstice miracle: Baekhyun felt all the darkness of his inner winter suddenly illuminate.

Jongdae was definitely asphyxiating, though, they were going to have to wrap this conversation up quickly before he fainted again.

“What a conundrum you found yourself in,” Baekhyun said.

Minseok grinned at his understanding.

“Indeed,” he said. “Until you so conveniently solved the whole thing by being the same person.”

“Nice of me to work it out that way,” Baekhyun said.

“Work out? What? You guys are gonna? Date?” Jongdae squeaked.

Baekhyun looked at him. His poor face was all wide eyes and eyebrows, and it was completely hilarious.

“Min, is Jongdae kind of dumb?”

“Hey!”

“I’m afraid so,” Minseok said. “But between that ass of his and his fat little cock, he makes up for it.”

“It’s not little!” Jongdae shouted.

Minseok patted his forearm.

“I said it was fat, calm your jets.”

“I am so confused right now,” Jongdae said.

“Don’t worry, it just enhances how cute you are,” Baekhyun said.

Jongdae scowled at him, and Minseok laughed. He took Jongdae’s hands.

“Dae. You like me, and you like Baekhyun, and I like Baekhyun, and I like you,” he said, which should’ve sounded patronizing, except for the warmth and laughter in his voice.

Jongdae turned around, but without, Baekhyun noticed, letting go of Minseok’s hands.

“And how does Baekhyun feel about this?”

“I have definitely been pierced by dual arrows of like,” he said.

Jongdae looked back and forth between them like he was afraid he was having a hallucination.

“Jongdae,” Minseok said gently. “I knew but I didn’t let myself know. Does that make sense?”

Was this how it was going to be? Baekhyun felt as warm as summertime, watching the way Minseok’s thumb stroked Jongdae’s hand and the way Jongdae’s lips, pressing together as he nodded, didn’t quite hide either their trembling or his smile.

“I’m sorry I took you for granted.”

Just when it looked as if things might get a little damp, and Baekhyun was thinking that Jongdae might benefit from a little support from the back, Jongdae shook himself.

“Oh,” he said. “Water.”

“The wisdom to know what’s in our hearts,” Minseok said with a smile that stopped Baekhyun’s own heart briefly.

He watched them kiss around smiles, tender and a little hesitant, until Jongdae broke off with a laugh.

“That is _way_ better sober,” he said.

“Sober and without any worries about regretting it in the morning,” Minseok laughed.

“Ah, so you’re both dumbasses,” Baekhyun said. “Cool. I can work with that.”

“Shut up,” Jongdae said, then climbed on him and made him.

His mouth was warm and eager, and even though it had been a good long while, Baekhyun felt the itch in his palms, the way his hands wanted to be up against skin and not cloth.

“I want to be in the middle,” Jongdae announced when they came up for air.

Baekhyun made an experimental dig of fingers into Jongdae’s side, and Jongdae bowed sideways with the high-pitched sound of the profoundly ticklish.

Great.

“Do you now,” Minseok said.

He drained his glass of wine, and Baekhyun made note of a very nice-looking neck indeed.

“And what do you mean by that?”

He scooted forward and ran one hand up the back of Jongdae’s sweater.

“You want Baek to fuck you while you suck me off? Or you want to fuck Baek while I take you?”

Jongdae shuddered, and Baekhyun’s pants started to feel a bit tight.

“What, nobody gets to fuck you?” he asked.

What a dirty smile Minseok had. Baekhyun was a huge fan.

“My ass has to be earned,” Minseok said.

He leaned over Jongdae’s shoulder to kiss Baekhyun with the kind of commanding filth that made Baekhyun think fondly of things like weeping helplessly with overstimulation and creeping out to the drugstore with his hood tied around his face to buy nine tubes of concealer before work the next day.

Jongdae, smashed between them, groaned under his breath.

“You know, he says he wants to be in the middle, but he has no idea what he’s talking about,” Minseok said a couple of minutes later, when both he and Baekhyun had conspired to get all their hands up under Jongdae’s nice red sweater and he was squirming wonderfully in Baekhyun’s lap.

“Min,” Jongdae complained.

“Aw, it’s okay, it’s just more dicks to go around,” Baekhyun said. “And I don’t know about you guys, but I worked damn hard to get over my gag reflex, so please feel free to tell me I’m amazing.”

“Oh my,” Jongdae said.

“Wait till you see him without all these clothes on,” Minseok said. “I wracked my brains from one end to the other, and still the only word I can come up with for his thighs is ‘juicy.’ I want to fucking sink my teeth into them, Baek, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh no, please do, I love that,” Baekhyun said.

“Fuck, it’s me,” Jongdae said. “Baek thought you were luring him here, but I’m the virgin sacrifice.”

“You’re not a virgin,” Minseok scoffed before Baekhyun could have a conniption.

“I’m a threesome virgin,” Jongdae said primly. “You have to be gentle with me.”

“Nope,” Baekhyun said. “I vote for wholesale mutual wrecking.”

“Seconded,” Minseok said.

“You’re doomed,” Baekhyun said. “Happy solstice.”

As virgin sacrifices went, Jongdae was both loud and demanding, which might’ve been obnoxious except for the fact that his brain kept shorting out when he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to kiss Minseok or Baekhyun next and he would just cling to them, staring back and forth until Baekhyun was limp (metaphorically) with affection and Minseok wore a dopey little smile, stroking Jongdae’s cheek with the back of his fingers.

So it was just self-preservation that led them to decide that they needed to double-team Jongdae until he couldn’t move.

“No, I want more,” Jongdae slurred after his third orgasm, with his mouth mashed against the mattress under him.

“You’d have more stamina if you come to the gym with me,” Minseok said.

Jongdae made a rude noise but couldn’t muster anything more vivacious than thumping one foot. Baekhyun laughed and ran one hand down the nice curve of his back, kissed his shoulder blade.

“I bought a bunch of Lycra workout gear, and Min wears these tiny shorts,” he said. “And there’s a whirlpool tub.”

He thought Jongdae’s wordless grumble was probably an admission of defeat and kissed his back again. He felt Minseok’s fingers in his hair and looked up into a nicely sappy smile directed at himself. Baekhyun smiled back, and Minseok slid into his arms. Between the endorphins, the candlelight, and how great they both were, Baekhyun had a wobbly sensation behind his sternum while Minseok kissed him.

When were they going to ask him to leave? Was that offer from Minseok of a ride home still good?

Would he get to come back?

“Somebody turn my head, I can’t see you guys,” Jongdae mumbled.

Minseok snorted and rolled over to rotate Jongdae’s head for him, lean in to kiss him. Baekhyun figured that was a good opportunity to rub up against that ass nobody had earned yet – which was really a shame, because it was a great ass.

There hadn’t been a lot of times when Baekhyun had wanted so very much to be invited back for more.

Minseok turned back around, and Baekhyun leaned in to nuzzle at his neck.

“Do I need to go soon? Let you put Mr. Sleepy to bed?”

Minseok, instead of tensing up and rolling away, slid one hand down Baekhyun’s chest and palmed the goods.

“I don’t see why you should, since you and I are obviously up for more.”

He did a nice little squeezing thing that made Baekhyun’s breath shudder.

“And if it were entirely up to me, you’d stay the night,” Minseok continued.

“Yeah?” Baekhyun said.

“No leaving,” Jongdae muttered.

“And Jongdae said no leaving,” Minseok grinned.

“Oh, well, guess I’m stuck, then,” Baekhyun said. “That sounds great.”


End file.
